Aerojet congratulates NASA on 30-year anniversary of space shuttle program

View full sizeNASA's fleet of orbiters will retire following the planned launch of Atlantis on June 28. (Special to The Huntsville Times)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Aerojet today offered congratulations to NASA and its partners on the recent 30th anniversary of the inaugural space shuttle launch from Kennedy Space Center. The company's technology has flown on every shuttle mission since 1981.

With NASA's recent announcement on the orbiters' retirement locations, Aerojet said in a news release that it "is elated that NASA will be retiring one of the shuttle's Orbital Maneuvering System engines to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center ..."

Aerojet, which has an office at 1500 Perimeter Parkway NW in Huntsville and is a partner with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, manufactured the OMS engines for the shuttles as well as the Reaction Control System thrusters.

The OMS engines have contributed to each on-orbit operation and also are used to return each shuttle to Earth.

"We are very excited that one of our OMS engines will come home to Huntsville," Julie Van Kleeck, vice president of Space and Launch Systems, said in a statement. "As part of NASA's shuttle launch team for the last 30 years, we have enjoyed seeing the significant scientific rewards that the program has brought to mankind."